Despite its condescending opening (“It’s part of the rhythm of our self-absorbed American culture that we seem able to process only one foreign language writer at time. But when we do, we do it with a vengeance.”), this Fresh Air story about Bolano and 2666 extols his writing and adds to the acclaim of the novel.
This time at Flavorwire/Flavorpill:
FW: Who are your favorite authors, and who are your favorite authors to translate?
NW: A few recent favorites: Horacio Castellanos Moya’s Senselessness and Francisco Goldman’s The Art of Political Murder (try reading these back to back; two very different treatments of the same Central American tragedy). Also, in no particular order: V. S. Naipaul, Norman Rush, David Foster Wallace, John Updike, Geoff Dyer, Ann Beattie, Alice Munro, George Saunders. Among others. I don’t really have a favorite author to translate: some styles come more naturally than others, but by the time I’ve worked through a book it’s so familiar that it’s hard for me to judge it objectively.
